The Illinois Fighting Illini and the Kansas Jayhawks have scheduled a home-and-home football series for 2023 and 2024, both schools announced today.

In the first game of the series, Kansas will host Illinois at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence on Sept. 9, 2023. The Fighting Illini will host the second and final game of the series at their own Memorial Stadium in Champaign on Sept. 7, 2024.

“This series with Kansas is another great addition that fits in with our scheduling philosophy,” Illinois Director of Athletics Mike Thomas said. “We have set out to schedule games against some outstanding institutions and I feel like we’ve done that with home-and-home series finalized for North Carolina, South Florida, Virginia and now Kansas.”

Illinois and Kansas last met in Champaign in 1968. The Jayhawks won that game 47-7, but the Illini lead the overall series 3-2.

“I am really pleased to add Illinois to our schedule,” said Kansas football head coach Charlie Weis. “This series gives us another opportunity to play a game in an important area to our recruiting efforts. Additionally, it’s a chance to accommodate our large alumni base in the Chicago area.”

Both games are the first announced non-conference contests for Illinois and Kansas for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

News of a potential series between the two schools first surfaced in October when the Big Ten accidentally posted a future non-conference schedule document online. The document listed the series as Sept. 7, 2019 at Kansas and Sept. 19, 2020 at Illinois. Obviously, those dates were changed to 2023 and 2024.

Bob

Sorry, I meant that to be a one year suspension of play (a mini death penalty). I was so excited at the prospect of this 2 game series that I was careless in my typing. Just think, the starting quarterbacks in this game are in the second to the fifth grade.